Boing Boing » whistleblowerhttp://boingboing.net
Brain candy for Happy MutantsTue, 03 Mar 2015 22:45:16 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1Rep. Peter King calls for prosecution of journalists covering NSA whistleblower storyhttp://boingboing.net/2013/06/12/rep-peter-king-calls-for-pros.html
http://boingboing.net/2013/06/12/rep-peter-king-calls-for-pros.html#commentsThu, 13 Jun 2013 00:50:19 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=235760Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said reporters who publish stories that reference leaked classified information should be prosecuted by the state.]]>On the CNN program "AC 360" Tuesday night, Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said reporters who publish stories that reference leaked classified information should be prosecuted by the state. That same day, King appeared on Fox News to demand that the state prosecute Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who broke the Edward Snowden story.

Yesterday, Rep. Peter King (R-NY) publicly called for the prosecution of Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald for his recent reports showing that the NSA has been secretly spying on millions of Americans. Rep. King's appalling call for legal action against a reporter for doing his job is an affront to all journalists, and indeed, the First Amendment itself. Freedom of the Press Foundation condemns these comments in the harshest terms. Rep. King has a long and unfortunate history of calling for the prosecution of journalists when media organizations print something he doesn’t like. Unfortunately for him, that is not how the First Amendment works.

]]>http://boingboing.net/2013/06/12/rep-peter-king-calls-for-pros.html/feed46Fox News whistleblower begins anonymous tell-all serieshttp://boingboing.net/2012/04/11/fox-news-whistleblower-begins.html
http://boingboing.net/2012/04/11/fox-news-whistleblower-begins.html#commentsThu, 12 Apr 2012 00:50:04 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=154048 Gawker has launched a new column written by an anonymous Fox News employee who posts under "The Fox Mole." S/he claims to have been with Fox for "years," and claims that s/he can't find work elsewhere because other news organizations view Fox alumni with suspicion.]]> Gawker has launched a new column written by an anonymous Fox News employee who posts under "The Fox Mole." S/he claims to have been with Fox for "years," and claims that s/he can't find work elsewhere because other news organizations view Fox alumni with suspicion. The Mole's first column describes a particularly nasty piece of work by Fox -- the notorious "Obama's Hip Hop BBQ Didn't Create Jobs" story -- as the breaking point that got her/him interested in exposing wrongdoing at the organization.

The post neatly summed up everything that had been troubling me about my employer: Non sequitur, ad hominem attacks on the president; gleeful race baiting; a willful disregard for facts; and so on. It came close on the heels of the Common controversy, which exhibited a lot of the same ugly traits. (See also: terrorist fist jabs; Fox & Friends madrassa accusations; etc.)

The worst thing about the Hip Hop BBQ incident is that we didn't back away from it. Bill Shine, who is a rather important guy—sort of Roger Ailes' main hatchet man, and the go-between for Ailes and most of the top talent—bafflingly doubled down and defended it. The story still exists on the Fox Nation site, headline and photo montage intact, to this very day.

That was it for me. It wasn't that the one incident was so bad, in and of itself. But it was so galvanizing, and on top of so many other little incidents, that I guess it just finally pushed me over the edge.

This is a really big deal for journalists and free speech activists
everywhere. This has been a major effort by hundreds of people from all over the globe, and most importantly the Icelandic people! I have an unending amount of
respect for the people of Iceland. They've decided that history
shouldn't be erased, that people should be free to discuss what is
actually happening in the world around them, and most of all they've
decided to help the entire planet with this in mind.

Below, a statement from Wikileaks founder Julian Assange about Wikileaks' involvement in this initiative.

The WikiLeaks advised proposal to build an international
"new media haven" in Iceland, with the world's strongest
press and whistleblower protection laws, and a "Nobel" prize for
for Freedom of Expression, has unaminously passed the
Icelandic Parliament.

50 votes were cast in favor, zero against, one abstained. Twelve
members of parliament were not present. Vote results are available
[here].

Two changes were made to the proposal from its original form as per
the opinion of the parliament's general affairs committee
[Link]. The first of these
altered slightly the wording of the first paragraph so as to widen
the arena for research. The second of these added two new items to
the list of tasks for the government:

- That the government should perform a detailed analysis,
especially with respect to operational security,
for the prospect of operating data centers in Iceland.

- That the government should organize an international conference
in Iceland regarding the changes to the legal environment being caused
by expansion of cloud computing, data havens, and the judicial state
of the Internet.